• The median sales price for new development and re-sale homes in the quarter ended 9/30 was $850,000, up 1.7% from the prior quarter, but down 8.4% from same time last year
• The average sales price per square foot was $996, down 5.7% from the prior quarter and down 16.5% from the same time last year. This marks the first time the price per square foot was less than $1000 since 4th quarter 2006 when it was $998.
• The number of sales was up 45.6.2% from the prior quarter (see below for an explanation of this increase) but down a moderate and improving 16% from the same quarter last year.
• There are 8,389 homes for sale, down 10.5% from last quarter and down 4.6% from the same quarter last year.  The increase in the number of sales contributed to the decrease in listing inventory.
• Days on the market increased 3.2% to 167 days from the prior quarter and also increased 24.5% from the prior year's quarter.

Looking more closely at the median sales price, new developments were up 7.6% from the prior quarter and up a slight 1.3% from the second quarter of last year. This marked a big improvement over the trend earlier this year when the median sales price was down.

• Mortgage rates at historic lows
• Pent up demand from prior quarters
• The $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit
• Increased affordability due to the decrease in prices
• Improved consumer confidence

However, because of increasing unemployment both generally and in the financial services sector coupled with restrictive mortgage underwriting, the report concludes that